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Highchair War!

I've just started weaning DS but so far we're struggling with the fact he appears to HATE sitting in his highchair!!

We're doing BLW and breakfast seems to be the only time I can successfully get him to take an interest, and that's sat in a Bumbo with the tray attached, placed on the table in front of me. However the rest of the day he also hates doing that!

He is a bit small and so each time I put him in his highchair he slides himself down. I've tried putting a towel under his bum but that didn't make much difference. We mostly resort to me sitting on the other side of the highchair with him on my knee and the food on the tray. This is ok to a point but I don't like not being able to see him, and it's a bit wobbly!

I've started giving him his first milk feed of the day in the highchair (it reclines) so he can associate the chair with food and all things nice, but that doesn't seem to be making a difference.

I have a Chicco highchair at home & my mum has another one very similar. They are lovely but when I first started weaning, my LO would also slip down. He didn't have an issue with being in the chair though, he just looked so uncomfortable. Even now at 10 months old he still slouches down. However I bought a brilliant highchair from Ikea (to keep in the boot of the car for when out & about). Its the Antilop one...here's the link: http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/00069725 (link not endorsed by FZ). It's made of rigid plastic & you can pull it upto the table or buy the separate tray to make it more conventional & also has an inflatable insert to buy if your LO is still small. I have found this brilliant. The legs are removeable so it makes it really portable if necessary too. The best thing is the price..they are around £11 & the tray costs a little bit more....wish I knew about them before I got my other which cost about £90!

Because it is rigid plastic, they don't slouch & its really easy to clean. They have them in the cafe at Ikea so could be worth a trip if you have one nearby & you can then try before you buy...totally separate issue but if you become a Family Club member there, you get free tea/coffee & if you buy a meal you get free baby food too!

When I bought mine, my LO could sit unaided so not sure how you would get on if they couldn't. Probably wouldn't be a problem though, especially with the insert (I didn't buy the insert as it wasn't needed).

My DD1 is only dinky and was far too small to be able to reach the tray on her highchair so I used a pillow under her, like a seat pad with a back rest to put her in a better position. Later on when she was a bit bigger I used a folded double sheet the same way. It still took a bit of getting used to but I am sure her feeling more secure, comfortable and at a better height helped.

Lynne - I have heard that the Ikea highchair is very well recommended for BLW, but unfortunately the nearest one is 2hrs away in Bristol (we're a bit behind the times down here in Cornwall! ). Our highchair is a Chicco Polly Magic and it cost me almost £150 so I really don't want to have to think about getting another one.

PP - think I will try a bit more padding today, thanks. I guess it's a bit like me trying to eat a meal if the table came to my armpits.... not too comfortable!

I think a big part of the problem is that I can't seem to find the right time of day to get him interested in food - he's either too hungry for his milk or too cranky from tiredness! In the mornings, he has a nap just 1.5hrs after waking for the day, so we usually do breakfast an hour after his 1st bottle. Then after his nap it is soon time for the next feed and that's where it all goes wrong. He naps well during the day - somewhere between 2 & 3 hours, so trying to fit in a meal between sleeping and milk is a bit of a task!

Wake up - Milk then an hour later breakfast and a nap. Then about 11am milk and then 12 dinner and a nap. Then milk at about 4 and tea at 5 then bedtime milk about 6.30/7pm.

We have a Polly highchair from Toys R Us and its great (Don't think its a magic one though). They can't slide down because the tray has a thing on it that goes between their legs so it just can't happen!

It is hard fitting it all in but this was the best way for us. We also did BLW and letting my LO play and pulling her upto the table helped a lot so she could see that we're all doing the same. We all eat together and still do.

I always made sure that milk came first and then food not too much longer after so that she wasn't hungry but rather was experimenting putting food in her mouth and tasting the flavours.

Is there a particular reason you want him to be in the highchair for eating? if he'll eat in the bumbo then I say go with that until he is big enough not to slide down in the highchair. when I first started weaning we often used to 'picnic', both outside and sitting on a piece of wipeclean tablecloth in the sitting room. If he's not comfortable then you may well find he won;t be so interested in the food you are trying to give him.

Jensqui - I guess it's just that the highchair is somewhere safe I can put him whilst i get everything ready, plus it has a much bigger tray (for squishing the food on to!!). When he's in the Bumbo, he arches his back to try and get out so I only like to put him in it when I'm right there in front of him. He can't sit on his own yet so although a picnic sounds like great fun, he does need to be supported to be properly upright so maybe a month or two off that yet....

Flic - so glad you mentioned that plastic bit!! I knew it would be useful for something and put it in a 'safe' place while we weren't using the tray and had forgotten all about it! Tried it this afternoon with a folded up tablecloth and the plastic bar in place and we had great success!

As for the routine, although DS feeds every 4 hours I don't stick to set times, it just depends what time he wakes up in the morning. Today we've had a rare full day in and it's gone like this.....

So as you can see he's a great sleeper but the timing is all a bit weird. Tomorrow he may wake up at 6am and so it's all different again, although the theory is still the same. The only thing I do differently if he wakes early is offer a 4oz feed between 4-5pm as a top up until I start the bedtime routine at 6.30pm.

I'm always reluctant to offer 'dinner' as he's always so grumpy in the late afternoon. Dh usually gets home from work between 5.30 & 6pm and so for the time being we are still going to continue to eat our dinner after A has gone to bed, although once he 'gets' it I will bring it forward so we can all eat together.

Ahhhhh!!! Excellent!!! We must have the same high chair then!!! I LOVE it!!!

I know you said you're reluctant to offer dinner but I would because despite the grumpiness he does need to learn that there are 3 meals. Even if he doesn't 'eat' anything.

For breakfast I just give toast with butter/marg on as this is usually plenty. And then for lunch we have a sandwich with dairylea and then for tea she gets whatever we have.

Also if he goes for a nap at 12 why not have lunch at 12 and see if he'll nap straight after this, he may have a longer nap at this time if he's full of food and he's worn out from playing and eating it.

The only times I stick to are dinner at 12 (or a bit earlier if she's really looking tired) and tea at 5 because I know that she won't go too long without food.

I found it hard to fit it all in though. All you seem to be doing is feeding milk or sitting at the table eating or nap times!!!

Highchair now much better with the correct bits attached, thanks Flic!! The only difference with mine, being a Polly Magic, is that it has 2 recline settings and a newborn insert & toy bar. I bought it when I was pregnant as wanted something to keep the baby up out of the way of the dog.....turns out completely unnecessary as the dog not in the slightest bit interested!!

I take your point about 3 meals a day - we did actually do 'dinner' last night as he had slept so much during the day and did green beans and more toast. None of it got touched but at least he was happy to sit there.

This morning he woke at 6.15am and had an 8oz feed at 6.30am. We did breakfast at 7.30am with toast, mango and yoghurt and he did actually touch and play with this lot, although only a tiny bit of yoghurt went in! He has been asleep since 8.20am so will see how the day pans out.....

How did you get your LO into consistent milk timings? Did she wake at the same time every morning? I've only just got A sleeping through the night so whenever he wakes up - as long as it's not before 6am - I get him up as he's always really hungry. Ideally he'd have his first feed at 7am.... should I perhaps get tough and not get him up any earlier??

I always start at 7am.. and just keep them going if they wake earlier.. little man can be awake and up from any time from 5.30am.. but I just put him on his beanbag in the kitchen whilst I potter and use a dummy if I have to..

One method I used to use was to feed at whatever time they woke, ie 5am, 6am.. etc.. but then do a top up feed at 7am so they started the day on a full tummy and then the timings for the day were always the same..

What did you have for dinner last night if A got green beans and toast?? glad we didn't come to dinner that night..

Funny was thinking of talking to you about the feed times. Little man still getting a night feed though? When A had 3am feed he wouldn't want 1st feed until hour after waking. Will see how it goes doing pick up/put down til just before 7am....

I just microwaved a handful of green beans from the freezer! (bad mummy!)

O usually wakes up about 7ish (today was 6.45) I don't really worry about breakfast timing but I found dinner/lunch was a hard one so I try to stick to 12 if I can (sometimes a bit earlier if she's really tired) and tea is pretty much always at 5 and a snack in-between about 3 or 4.

I found mango was a nightmare for get O to eat because it was so slippery.

I do spoon feed things like yoghurt though otherwise it does end up everywhere. Pasta is a good one for tea because everyone can eat it.

I found it hard to not help (if that makes sense) I would keep on putting things to her mouth until I realised I was stressing too much and stopped!

I also found that if she was entertained more or we went out she would wait longer for her milk.

Right - we've given up on the highchair! I'm using the bumbo and tray and that seems much more successful, although I'll try the highchair again maybe next week and see how he reacts.

Still having lots of whingeing though and it's becoming a bit of a battle. Breakfast is usually pretty good and he will (mostly) happily sit and has started touching food, although next to nothing gets put in his mouth. I was spoon feeding yoghurt but only do that every 2 or 3 days now as don't want him to get a sweet tooth if all he actually consumes is yoghurt! (even though it is plain natural yog). However lunch and tea is a bit different where all he does is whinge! I've found I have to sing songs and distract him and eventually he might take an interest although occasionally I do abandon it as a bad job. What am I doing wrong?? I've managed to get his feeds to regular times - 7am, 11am, 3pm & then bedtime between 6.30/7pm, but as he's been waking at 5.30am the past 4 days I've been putting him down to nap at around 7.30am and having breakfast about 15 mins after he's woken up, so anywhere between 8.30-9am. Lunch is then usually about 12.30/1pm and dinner is almost always at 5pm after a nap, so I'm trying hard for him to not be too tired or hungry. I really wanted to do BLW so that I didn't have to battle to get food into him but now I'm questioning if I'm doing the right thing or if I am going to end up with him associating food or meal times with tears!!

I was worried about O getting a sweet tooth but I've always given her a yoghurt after food, just to keep her milk intake up really.

Please try not to stress out. It does take them quite a while to 'get it'. Biggreeneyes LO has just 'got it' recently and he's about 8months old now.

I was stressing that O wasn't eating much and got a good talking to by the ladies on here and chilled out completely and let her do her own thing.

I tried the bumbo but it didn't wok for us

I noticed that you're giving lots of different things. I would try just giving one thing at a time at each meal time (this is what I did) So breakfast was toast with butter, dinner was dairylea/ham sandwich and then a yoghurt, tea was maybe chicken and some veg. I kept it really really simple.

Also my LO doesn't like sweet potato, she doesn't really like mango and satsumas she's only just started to eat a little bit, and by that I mean she will eat a couple of segments!!

Maybe if you simplify it and all eat the same thing, even if you eat off his tray so he sees you picking his food up and eating it he might start to copy. I think this is how O started to learn, she saw me eating from her tray and we pull her right up to the table.

If he's whinging when eating maybe try with food sooner after milk so he's not hungry at all and let him play with it.

Its so frustrating isn't it! I really am not worried about him not actually eating anything - I know he has his milk for nutrition and I'm fine with that - but I'm just fed up of hearing stories about how babies love playing with food etc etc, even when they don't actually consume anything until 8 or 9 months. How comes my baby is so different and doesn't actually want to sit and touch the blimmin food!?!

I thought you were supposed to offer a good variety, but perhaps I will stick to one or two things and see how that goes. I only ever put 2-3 items on the tray at a time, so its not as if he's overwhelmed, but I tend to alternate colours and textures to try and make it interesting. For example this morning was toast & butter and a couple of raspberries - yesterday it was eggy bread and banana!

When we were using the highchair, I did put my food on it too but haven't done that since we moved to the Bumbo. I do however eat right in front of him and he tends to watch me intently (when he's not whingeing!)

After about 4 weeks of starting BLW, on Saturday he finally picked up a rice cake and shoved it in his mouth!! Since then he's done it with absolutely everything! Last night we had dinner at my parents in the garden and he had steak, salmon, tomato, pepper, breadsticks and even stole a handful of couscous salad off my plate! My mum thinks it's amazing and can't stop staring at him!

Not much is going down although he definitely eats some. His favourite is toast with Philadelphia and he is loving apple rice cakes, strawberries and breadsticks. He also has an addiction to yoghurt/fromage frais so making sure he only has 1 a day, usually at breakfast. I'm spooning this in although he's now, ahem, 'helping'!

We've been away and have been using the Bumbo which is great as we've used it in the garden as well as at the table. Today we've used the highchair and although he is happy to sit in it now - finally - the tray is just far too big so he just ends up pushing food out of his reach and getting frustrated.

I didn't worry too much about the yoghurt as its another way to get milk into them. As he actually eats more his milk intake will go down and you will need to find ways of keeping it up and yoghurt is perfect (also dairylea and cheese etc etc)

It is great though when they do click! I remember my Mum being amazed and thinking that I was mad at first but now she goes on about it to anyone who will listen!